Yamaha First To Market With 16X CD-RW Drive Designed Around Oak's Controller That Reduces CD Burn Time To Under 5 Minutes

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Oak Technology, Inc. and Japan's Yamaha Corporation today announced a strategic partnership to drive critical advances in optical recording technologies focused on expanding opportunities in the PC, consumer audio and emerging I-Appliance markets. This partnership allows both parties to leverage each other's technical strengths to drive the adoption of advanced writing capabilities in the optical storage market, initially focusing on development of CD-RW audio recording solutions. As a result, Yamaha unveiled the industry's first 16X CD-RW drive last week, which enables consumers creating compilation disks to copy a typical audio CD in just five minutes.

Under terms of the partnership, Yamaha, a technology leader in CD-R/RW systems for the PC and consumer markets, and Oak, a leading provider of embedded solutions for the optical-storage and digital-imaging markets, will deepen a relationship between the two companies created earlier this year when Yamaha became one of the first OEMs to adopt Oak's OTI-9795 16X recordable/rewritable compact disk (CD-R/RW) controller. The partnership with Yamaha furthers Oak's strategic roadmap aimed at leveraging high-end CD-RW recording technology into the PC and consumer audio markets.

Noted Oak Technology's president and CEO, Young Sohn, "Our partnership with Yamaha is significant to Oak, because both companies are committed to proactively influencing the future direction of optical-recording technology. We believe that the strategic relationship between Oak and Yamaha will help both companies realize this goal in exciting ways and lead to new solutions tailored specifically to the audio recordable market. Until now, the CD-RW market has focused primarily on PC-based applications."

"Oak's leading CD-RW controller technology and high level of integration enabled us to bring our CRW2100 drive to market quickly, with the highest performance yet available in a CD-RW drive," said Takuya Tamaru, General Manager for Yamaha's Digital Storage Products Development Division. "We are very excited to have entered this partnership with Oak to work together to develop future advanced CD-RW solutions for both PC and consumer audio markets."

Yamaha's CRW2100 Drive

Yamaha's new CRW2100 drive features the industry's highest read and write speeds, with 16x CD-R write (recordable) speed, 10X CD-RW write (re-writable) speed, and 40X CD read speed. The CRW2100 supports Disc-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Track-at-Once and Packet Writing methods. The drive is available in four models, for both internal and external PC connection.

Oak's Optical Controller Technology

Oak has maintained a leadership position in the optical storage segment since its founding in 1987. The company is recognized as one of the leading suppliers of optical storage controllers, having sold more than 130 million optical storage controllers to date. Oak's latest generation of advanced CD-RW optical storage controllers have been selected by six of the top seven OEM suppliers of CD-RW drives. The Company's recent product development efforts in the area have focused on emerging segments such as CD-RW and Combo drives, which are fast becoming the mainstream optical storage for the PC market.

The OTI-9795 16x controller provides a complete set of capabilities for CD-R/RW drive manufacturers. In addition to its 16x write/40x read speed, key features of the OTI-9795 are a highly automated block decoder/encoder, integrated CD-DSP (digital signal processing), digital CD servo, integrated wobble servo, write strategy, CAV write capability, and audio DAC circuits that offer the best performance in the industry. The OTI-9795 meets the requirements for line fit applications with major PC and consumer audio markets.

About Oak Technology

Oak Technology, Inc., a leading provider of solutions for the storage, manipulation and distribution of digital content, is committed to driving the emerging world of connected Information Appliances. The company's fully integrated products and technologies target two key markets: optical storage (CD-RW and DVD for PC and consumer) and digital imaging (advanced copiers, printers, faxes, scanners and MFPs). Founded in 1987, Oak is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has sales offices, design centers and research facilities around the world. The company trades on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the symbol OAKT. Additional information about Oak and its digital solutions can be found at www.oaktech.com.

About Yamaha

Founded in 1887, the Yamaha Corporation has long been known as one of the world's leading manufacturers of quality musical instruments. At the same time, the Company has grown through a broad spectrum of business activities, including electronic devices and equipment, professional audio equipment, and audio-visual equipment. For more information, go to www.yamaha.co.jp/.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: In addition to the historical information contained herein, statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities laws and are subject to the safe harbors created thereby. The following are among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements: The foregoing statements may consist of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Factors that could cause actual outcome to differ materially from those set forth include, without limitation, the rate of adoption of new technology, the rate of growth of the CD-RW market, changes in product mix or distribution channels; the demand for semiconductors and end- user products that incorporate semiconductors; technological difficulties and resource constraints encountered in developing and/or introducing new products, and market acceptance of new products. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release regarding expected financial results, industry trends, sales and future product development and business strategies and activities should be considered in light of these factors, and those factors discussed from time to time the Company's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, such as those discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report report on Form 10K for fiscal year ending June 30,1999, and it quarterly reports on Form 10Q.

NOTE: Oak Technology and the Oak logo are registered trademarks of Oak Technology, Inc. All other product names or company names are mentioned for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Oak Technology, Inc.